How the NSA Plans to Infect ‘Millions’ of Computers with Malware

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.

How the NSA Plans to Infect ‘Millions’ of Computers with Malware

Another revelation from The Intercept.

The NSA and its allied agencies employ a system called TURBINE, with the intention to deploy up to millions of "automated [malicious] implants by groups instead of individually."

In addition to this, TURBINE is able to be used in conjunction with another system named TURMOIL:

The sensors, codenamed TURMOIL, operate as a sort of high-tech surveillance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as they are sent across the Internet.

When TURBINE implants exfiltrate data from infected computer systems, the TURMOIL sensors automatically identify the data and return it to the NSA for analysis. And when targets are communicating, the TURMOIL system can be used to send alerts or “tips” to TURBINE, enabling the initiation of a malware attack.

Click on the link for the documents:

firstlook.org...

Personally, I cannot see how anyone finds this very alarming. With the other releases, this was a logical next step for them. George Orwell, you had it right buddy.

andr3w68
Personally, I cannot see how anyone finds this very alarming. With the other releases, this was a logical next step for them. George Orwell, you had it right buddy.

How is this not alarming?

Obviously, it shouldn't be very surprising. But alarming? I think it is...

i just think of the early days of telephones when they had to say "operator, operator ..connect me to xyz"
and operator was able to sit in and listen..

..progress doesn't go backwards (pun intended)

now we're hearing the confirmations of little camera's in Xbox's and TV's that will monitor the viewer

it's not so unbelievable anymore, that one day someone "causes all to receive a mark on the hand or forehead, and none could buy or sell unless they had the mark"

So its more like yelling into a phone. Nothing at all to do with hacking your phone.

Just screaming noise into a stream of noise so that a public listener can say "sounds familiar, I'll listen"

Hacking your computer... Oh ffs.

reply to post by daaskapital


FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!

reply to post by sn0rch


a 1940's telephone sent audio.. and someone could 'listen in'

through the 2014 internet a person can open their garage door and start brewing coffee as they pull in the driveway..
..you think someone's not listening in, or doesn't have the capability to listen in? or start brewing coffee, or make your internet-connected-toaster tell you to buy catcher in the rye

it's *built into* the system
it always is

none of this is alarming, like the other humanoid stated



i enjoyed the little picture there, what's that? charlton heston with a laptop?
that's kinda the problem with all this, that pic is us saying we won't let go of the things that enslave us
it's funny because people think it's about personal empowerment but it's the other way around

reply to post by iRoyalty


Haha, nice!

UNIT76

i enjoyed the little picture there, what's that? charlton heston with a laptop?
that's kinda the problem with all this, that pic is us saying we won't let go of the things that enslave us
it's funny because people think it's about personal empowerment but it's the other way around

edit on 13-3-2014 by UNIT76 because: doomed

It was in reference to the information on my computer!

This thread just made me think of it

What's the alternative? Get rid of the internet? The internet has been the single greatest and most advancing piece of technology we have EVER invented.

iRoyalty


What's the alternative? Get rid of the internet? The internet has been the single greatest and most advancing piece of technology we have EVER invented.

The steam and internal combustion engines, semiconductors, the wheel, cutting tools, flight, the plough, gunpowder, the printing press, mechanised clocks, paper all disagree with you.

reply to post by khimbar


But have any of them advanced us like the internet has?

Sure some of them gave birth to the industrial revolution, but all the information of the world is available to everyone at any time. All systems are now built on it, I work for the NHS and I can arrange ambulances at the click of a button.

That has been more beneficial and changing to our society than anything before it.

Time to unplug?

iRoyalty
reply to post by khimbar

 

But have any of them advanced us like the internet has?

Sure some of them gave birth to the industrial revolution, but all the information of the world is available to everyone at any time. All systems are now built on it, I work for the NHS and I can arrange ambulances at the click of a button.

That has been more beneficial and changing to our society than anything before it.

Yes, I'd argue even more so in some cases, for instance without semi-conductors there would be no internet.

I just don't think it's the most important invention ever. I imagine the way to compare is to imagine what would happen if they vanished tomorrow.

People could, if needed, live without it forever. There would be no great hardship.

I doubt they could live without sanitation, anesthesia, internal combustion, wheels, the alphabet etc quite as easily.

ETA anyway we're getting off topic. To stay on topic, I am not surprised by this news.

khimbar
Yes, I'd argue even more so in some cases, for instance without semi-conductors there would be no internet.

I just don't think it's the most important invention ever. I imagine the way to compare is to imagine what would happen if they vanished tomorrow.

People could, if needed, live without it forever. There would be no great hardship.

I doubt they could live without sanitation, anesthesia, internal combustion, wheels, the alphabet etc quite as easily.

I would be inclined to disagree, I don't think you realise just how many of our systems now work on the internet, in fact, ALL of our systems now work on the internet. Our society could not function the way it does without it.

Granted it's only been in the past 20 years we have really made this transition, but already everything uses it. It has advanced the way we communicate, the way we learn, the way we spend our free time. Try going one week without using the internet, at work, at home, anywhere and tell me you don't need it. Then go without washing your hands for a week and tell me which one made your life harder.

eta:

I wouldn't say it was THE greatest invention of all time, but it's definitely up there, top 10 AT LEAST.

UNIT76
reply to post by sn0rch

 

a 1940's telephone sent audio.. and someone could 'listen in'

through the 2014 internet a person can open their garage door and start brewing coffee as they pull in the driveway..
..you think someone's not listening in, or doesn't have the capability to listen in? or start brewing coffee, or make your internet-connected-toaster tell you to buy catcher in the rye

it's *built into* the system
it always is

none of this is alarming, like the other humanoid stated

edit on 13-3-2014 by UNIT76 because: 1984 was written in 1948

I'm not alarmed, I'm more worried that people are alarmed... they willing send all this personal data over open communications. and then claim outrage when some smug smart gubmint wants to listen.

They are the idiots yelling out of the windows, and then screaming when the neighbours hear all their dirty laundry.

This thread is another "Look Look they're hacking your PC!!" thread with absolutely no such thing involved.

And I would not be so flippant about it, if they WERE hacking into your PC.

Now some smart cookie will bring up the age old "windows XP has a nsa key so blah blah" and STILL not have a single clue.

it's just a shame... such a shame...

I am not sure if you agreed with me or not, but I know I needed to clarify my point so if I did go monty python on you, deflect it off to those in need. My Wutbird says it all.

truthgirl
reply to post by daaskapital

 

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

This is coming soon:

rikijo.blogspot.com...

WOT IS? WINTER?

HOW STARK!